Issue 215

April 2025

Ray Klerck explores how slapping on a pair of gloves might be the best mental health insurance you never signed up for.

MMA might not fix your taxes or your ex, but it will save your sanity, sculpt your soul and give your brain a powerful reboot. If you know. You know. It’s a full-contact life coach. For those who train, it quickly becomes obvious that the benefits of rolling, striking, and gasping for air go way beyond Instagram-boy six-pack abs. A fascinating new study published at the start of 2025 in Sport in Society titled ‘Martial Arts Crossed Over Into the Rest of My Life’ looked at what happens when regular folks stop being fans and become fighters. The takeaway? They improved pretty much every aspect of their lives. Socially. Mentally. Physically. This sport upgrades every operating system you’ve got. So, if you’re wondering whether it's right for you, here are seven life-enhancing perks that prove this is more than a punchy pastime. It’s therapy disguised by four-ounce gloves.

1. YOU WON’T BE A WALKOVER

Boundaries help let the right people in and keep the wrong folk out. The study found even non-competitive MMA fighters felt more assertive in everyday life. It’s a sport that delivers the kind of quiet confidence that keeps you from apologizing when someone else steps on your foot in a supermarket. You don’t have to be aggressive. You just stop being a doormat. That inner steel shows up in the workplace, in relationships, and anywhere someone tries to use your spine as a welcome mat. Once you’ve defended a rear-naked choke from a guy built like a vending machine, Karen from HR doesn’t feel so threatening anymore.

2. YOU’LL LOVE PEOPLE AGAIN

The older you get, the more catching up feels like a hostage negotiation over calendars. MMA gyms fix that fast. The study found that even the most solitary trainees started bonding over the mutual sharing of sweat, struggle, and bruises. Our communities are built around respect, banter, and occasionally bleeding bodily fluids on each other’s rash guards. That’s proper friendship. You show up for the fight, but you stay for the tribe. And unlike your drinking buddies, these people will actually notice when you’re not there.

3. YOUR MENTAL HEALTH GETS JACKED

Forget the ‘just go for a walk’ problem-solving mantra. MMA serves an emotional exorcism and a full-body workout in one. The study found that participants used training to reframe life’s nuanced situations more positively, stay grounded, and manage their emotions better. That’s a fancy way of saying MMA kept them from losing their minds in traffic. It forces you to breathe when you’re panicking, stay present when your brain wants to dissociate and focus when the world is trying to steal your attention. Whether it’s anxiety, depression, or just garden-variety existential dread, it's a physical outlet for your emotional inbox. Punch now. Process later.

4. YOU’LL LEARN TO FAIL WITHOUT FALLING APART

You will lose. You will get tapped. You will get pieced up by someone half your size who smells like Tiger Balm. That’s the whole point. MMA turns failure into a feature, not a bug. The study found that practitioners developed a better relationship with setbacks on the mats and in life. That resilience doesn’t just stay in the gym. It leaks into every difficult conversation. Every awkward work meeting. Every moment when things don’t go your way. You’ll learn failing isn’t the end. It’s just the start.

5. YOU’LL FIX YOUR FOCUS

Want to stop doomscrolling? Try defending an armbar. MMA demands your full attention, or you’ll be force-fed humble pie. The study reported increased mindfulness, so fighters were better at staying locked-in to the stuff that mattered. That translates to everyday life. You become more present in conversations. You’re more deliberate in your decisions. And if you’re lucky, you're less likely to forget where you parked your car. You learn to find stillness inside the storm.

Credit: Justin Mckie

6. GET THE DISCIPLINE YOU PRETENDED YOU HAD

MMA forces you into a routine, punishes inconsistency, and rewards effort over talent. The study found that martial arts training reshaped people’s approach to structure. These weren’t just fighters. These were people who started applying that discipline to their careers, their relationships, and their self-care. You stop winging life and start game-planning it. You learn how to show up, shut up, and put in work. Even when you don’t feel like it.

7. YOU SEE LIFE AS A FIGHT YOU CAN WIN

One of the study's most potent crossovers was that MMA changed how people approached problems. They started viewing challenges not as threats but as fights. And once you start seeing everything through that lens, every complicated conversation, every financial stress, every setback, it becomes manageable. You’ve trained for this. You’ve endured worse. MMA rewires your identity so that when life swings, you swing back.

BOTTOM LINE

Training in MMA doesn’t just make you tougher. It makes you better. Think of it as personal development with uppercuts. And while it won’t solve every problem, it will give you the mindset to face them all. So, if you’re still sitting on the fence, it’s time to climb down and hit the mats. Because the fight of your life isn’t out there. It’s in you. And MMA just might be the best way to unlock it.